JAPAN: Crown Prince & Commoner

Sitting in the rear seat of a small Toyopet car, the director of the
Imperial Household Board rode last week across the moat surrounding the
Imperial Palace and was whisked along Tokyo's streets to the Gotanda
district. The car drew up before the high-gabled, ten-room house of
Hidesaburo Shoda, president of the Nis-shin Flour Milling Co., the
largest in Japan.

Takeshi Usami, the imperial emissary, stepped from the car and, at once,
the Shoda door was opened by a low-bowing male secretary who ushered
him into the drawing room. Hidesaburo...